Big storm on Saturn Options

[john_s]

The solar system is a happening place this week! I just learned of a major storm in Saturn's northern hemisphere, being monitored by the usual band of talented amateurs. See this site for a list of recent images. Chris Go's site has a particularly nice image.

John

[Mr. Milton Banan...]

Hi folks! This is my first post to this board. I happen to be fascinated with violent weather on other planets-in particular, thunderstorms. I'm wondering if this is what this particular storm is-one massive thunderhead or a series of them bunched in some sort of titanic squall line. I note that similar massive thunderheads had appeared on Jupiter, supposedly towering 100 miles above the surrounding clouds. Those storms were also very rare. I hope that Cassini can do radio readings to check for lightning bolts. If there are lightning bolts in this storm, it wouldn't surprise me if some of them were strong enough to incinerate a city! Flying alongside this beast would be a truly terrifying and awe-inspiring experience.

Another thought would be to photograph this storm when it's on Saturn's night side to check for lightning flashes.

It's too bad we can't do some sort of 3-D representation of this storm, so we could check out is vertical structure.